Hardware enhancements

Some small hardware enhancement could be cheap, but very useful. Please add your ideas/wishes here:

Video-capable camera

A camera that is able to take reasonable quality video and pictures is something many want. Applications vary from simple snapping, to gesture interfaces, video conferencing, barcode reading and more.

Some people can't take cameras into work - a model without the camera, or some way of removing the camera would be useful.

Integrated WiFi hardware

To sync data

To access Internet when WiFi is available (at home, work, school, friends)

For VoIP (this uses much power but maybe the user have the charger connected)

I'm willing to port Yate to it if the Internet connectivity issue is solved --@Dexter 13:58, 16 February 2007 (CET)

for videoconferencing (as with AccessGrid)

Even 802.11b 11Mbps -only would do -- the point is being able to connect it to the Internet without incurring the (sometimes huge) costs of GPRS or (even worse) HSCSD.

To save power have WiFi able to wake up and check for a designated SSID then sleep again if not found (i.e. I'm not home) or wake up by GPS location (only come up at home and in the office)

Variable TX power, to the minimum needed to connect to the AP.

Some sort of caching (encrypted?) internet proxy that can store and forward packets. Instead of having the radio constantly on, it turns the radio on every 30s, for just long enough to register with the AP, and ask the proxy if it has new packets for it.

An optimisation might be if the hardware, and the AP can do broadcast packets. The receiver is only turned on for .5s/30s, to recieve a broadcast packet saying 'you've got packets' without registering with the AP, or transmitting at all. The GPS synchronises the timing.

This slows the initial connection to the phone, but most tcp/ip applications will not time out in 30s.

For a cheap, and therefore frequent, access to the global IP Network is vital to a community collaboratively developing such a nice piece of truly open hardware and software.. eg. to share source code and compiled applications directly, and to carry out world wide, community-based communication tests.

For an affordable Mobile device supporting popular instant messengers over cheap connection would be an irresistible market attractive. Just think about how much this would revolutionize the way people communicate in their WiFi served office area.

LED

A blinking LED would be cheap and low power, good for informing the user about new SMS/Email....

An alternative to this would be for one segment of the LCD to be seperately backlit. There are many LEDs in the backlight, all normally on. This has the advantage that you can display reasonable amounts of information on the bit of the screen that's illuminated.

The disadvantage is the field of view is smaller, and it's dimmer than a bare LCD, as the LCD absorbs some light.

This also requires the CPU and LCD to be somewhat active, to keep it refreshed.

Note: the LED and button ideas could be combined: illuminated buttons

A yellow LED for GSM/GPRS Tx burst, a blue one for Bluetooth/WiFi Tx burst, a green one for non-urgent notifications (sleep state, missed call etc.) and a red one for urgent notifications (battery almost drained out, new SMS etc.). All of this could be done in one, multicoloured (RGB) LED, similar to the nice one on the Yaesu VX-7R.

D-Pad and Buttons

Adding a D-pad (to the bottom of the phone) and 2 to 4 buttons (to the top) would provide some tactile input controls, in addition to the touchscreen. They could be used as shortcut keys in the menu, or playback control when playing media. When the phone is held sideways, they can be used as games controls. (With touchscreen alone, gameplay options are limited)

Game buttons would be extremely great especially on both sides of the screen. The larger the buttons, the better. 2x 4 buttons in up-down-left-right configuration + some extra buttons separately a bit lower on the device would be extremely great for emulation games.

Accelerometer

This enables the phone to sense where 'down' is - to enable various options.

Change playlists when I'm jogging vs walking. (there ia an mp3 player on the market that does this).

Can't the GPS information be used for that purpose? It should be possible to derive the phone's velocity from the change in coordinates over time, so such a playlist profile switcher should be a possibility even now already. Abraxa 00:09, 18 February 2007 (CET)

Yeah in my opinion that is a very cool idea. But for that case the device should be much lighter. I wouldn't go jogging with a device with this size.--denis_std 01:01, 18 February 2007 (CET)

Shake mitigation when using the camera (wish list item #1). How many of us end up with blurry pictures because we can't hold the phone steady?

An accelerometer is not a gyroscope. You can't tell orientation generally from acceleration, only which way 'down' is, which does not help for side-side motion, as the phone can spin around the direction of gravity without any acceleration. Up and down tilting is slightly easier, but it's very hard to determine between shaking of the phone in an up and down axis, and tilting the phone in an up and down axis.

There are a number of three-axis accelerometer chips on the market. These will be capable of determining most movements. I.e. accelerations in all directions and rotation (change in direction of gravity). Some related research has already been carried out (when three-axis accelerometers were not commonly available, instead using 2 two-axis devices) which shows these kind of movements can be tracked [1]. Mwelchuk 11:02, 26 February 2007 (CET)

3 axis accelerometer does _not_ give orientation information. It gives direction in which the current acceleration is. There are 3 variables to orientation - roll, pitch, yaw, and only two independent outputs from the accelerometer (tilt in two axes at 90 degrees). To get these, you have to assume no acceleration, which is not the case in a shaking hand. Two 2-axis accelerometers, one on either side of the device, do give this information, or at least enough to use the device as a steering wheel. If you place them like this and tilt the device the 2 accelerometers will give opposite readings, if you move the device (translation) they will give the same readings. Simple, no ?

The tilt information you get cannot be separated from shaking the phone.

Yes it can, just dampen with a filter

Consider you are sitting down in a chair. You know which way down is. You cannot, without further information tell if you are spinning round. Down does not move.

Obviously it does move : action-reaction : say down is a vector G. If you spin direction D is the tangent to the spinning circle. This tangent will be added to G, and this is the value the accelerometer returns. So you will measure G+D. Knowing this you can easily determine D, as you always measure G somewhere in the accelerometer.

IBM's thinkpad laptops have a demonstration program that actually does this, so obviously it is possible.
--Speedevil 14:10, 26 February 2007 (CET)

SIR/FIR transceiver (Serial Infrared)

An infrared tranceiver is cheap, small, and useful for sync with many laptops and mobile phones. A learning infrared remote is another application.

Tt could be used to detect when to turn off the display (if the low power IR signal is reflected) and activate the key lock.

FIR would be a nice option, as it's some 40 times faster than SIR.

Standard 3.5mm jack

I think everyone interested (and knowledgeable) enough to buy a Neo can make a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female adaptor cable in under 1/2h and under 10EUR :-)

Certainly - now make it light, small, pretty, durable, tangle-free.
I want a 3.5mm jack. The only problem is - are headsets widely available in the same format as 2.5mm. --Speedevil 14:28, 16 February 2007 (CET)

I believe this would be a great idea, if put into practice. It would solve the extensibility need, usually associated with Open Source projects. It would allow for lots of other devices and for functionality to be developed and put into use without making it a burden for FIC.

Thumb keyboard or keyboard attachment accessory

Could be slide out or clamshell (hinge on long side) design with an external OLED. The keyboard should be protected when not in use.

Could be a clip on keyboard that attaches to the serial port or communicates by bluetooth (not preferred for permanent keyboard users).

cheap clippable miniusb keyboard

EDGE support

EDGE support would allow better transfer rates than non-EDGE 2G, which is limited around 5 kB/s, thus enabling a real internet connectivity for the use of (mostly geographical-based) web services.

HSDPA support

HSDPA is currently the most popular 3G Mobile Telephony Network Protocol in Southeast Asia. It runs at a theoretical 384kbps uplink / 1.6mbps downlink.

A thought: is HSDPA worth doing while we're also going for Wifi / WiMax / WiBro? And another: is doing Wifi / Wimax / WiBro worth it considering low deployment in Asia? How 'bout doing both Wifi and 3G, is it worth it or not?

Ability to insert more than one Sim-Card and (if possible) connect to more than one network at the same time

This could be achieved via a specialist dual sim card kit (currently on market)- where two sims are trimmed and combined on one card, software support for dual sims would need providing...

What about twin-SIMs (SIMs with 2 phone lines registered on them)? Conventional GSM phones have an option to switch between the two, older ones use # (long press before dialling) to do that. I'm guessing Calypso should support it, we just need to provide an interface for it :-) --@Dexter 11:34, 19 February 2007 (CET)

USB

Simply because pocket space is also a scarce resource. Being able to plug in for a moment a camera, flash reader, or ... is a valuable thing. Also, many powered hubs will not recognise a totally unpowered host.

OTG (is this maybe supported already ?)

Bootable USB device emulation: the possibility to boot any computer on a bootable flagged partition of the transflash

UMTS support

Speakerphone

The Neo1973 already supports that in hardware (routing GSM audio to the loudspeakers). Could someone delete this wishlist item then? --@Dexter 13:14, 28 February 2007 (CET)

Unfortunately, speakerphone is more than simply connecting the speakers to GSM audio, it's also echo cancellation, and eliminating the feedback that will otherwise happen between the speakers and the mic.

Special covers

A standard slip-on or clip-on template (possibly with buttons) to make the touch-screen blind accessible

Small metal frame for protection (like Siemens M65, only with more style)

Video acceleration

Hardware acceleration for video playback.

3D acceleration

HMD

EPD

Or electronic paper display, EPD is used in many new devices such as the new Motorola motofone, sonys new e-reader and Irex's iliad. The technology provides thin, flexible, power saving screens using new eink technology. This technology could cut the weight of the phone and its power usage. For more info see: eink's website.

FM/Digital Radio(DAB) Reciever

Thermometer

An electronic thermometer might become handy for some users.

There are very small I2C devices available, that could easily integrate to the existing bus. For example this one from ti.

I2C breakout

I2C is an internal bus in the phone. This is a simple bus, with only 2-3 wires, hence ideal for making accessible to those making add-ons, as it is low powered, and can be daisy-chained. It would be a great candidate to bring out into the Expansion Back.

Finger print sensor

Fingerprint sensor gives easy and fast access to the phone, could lock the touchscreen etc. An example of this device can be found at Sony UX17.

As these are typically implemented with a small camera (256*4) focussed on the finger, with appropriate hardware and software, you can also use them as an optical mouse in reverse, detecting movement of the finger over the sensor.

Trackball

A trackball would provide an efficient mouse-like interface in a very compact package. As exemplified in the newer Blackberry® models.

Ideas that will probably never be implemented

Views

Personal tools

Hardware enhancements

Some small hardware enhancement could be cheap, but very useful. Please add your ideas/wishes here:

Video-capable camera

A camera that is able to take reasonable quality video and pictures is something many want. Applications vary from simple snapping, to gesture interfaces, video conferencing, barcode reading and more.

Some people can't take cameras into work - a model without the camera, or some way of removing the camera would be useful.

Integrated WiFi hardware

To sync data

To access Internet when WiFi is available (at home, work, school, friends)

For VoIP (this uses much power but maybe the user have the charger connected)

I'm willing to port Yate to it if the Internet connectivity issue is solved --@Dexter 13:58, 16 February 2007 (CET)

for videoconferencing (as with AccessGrid)

Even 802.11b 11Mbps -only would do -- the point is being able to connect it to the Internet without incurring the (sometimes huge) costs of GPRS or (even worse) HSCSD.

To save power have WiFi able to wake up and check for a designated SSID then sleep again if not found (i.e. I'm not home) or wake up by GPS location (only come up at home and in the office)

Variable TX power, to the minimum needed to connect to the AP.

Some sort of caching (encrypted?) internet proxy that can store and forward packets. Instead of having the radio constantly on, it turns the radio on every 30s, for just long enough to register with the AP, and ask the proxy if it has new packets for it.

An optimisation might be if the hardware, and the AP can do broadcast packets. The receiver is only turned on for .5s/30s, to recieve a broadcast packet saying 'you've got packets' without registering with the AP, or transmitting at all. The GPS synchronises the timing.

This slows the initial connection to the phone, but most tcp/ip applications will not time out in 30s.

For a cheap, and therefore frequent, access to the global IP Network is vital to a community collaboratively developing such a nice piece of truly open hardware and software.. eg. to share source code and compiled applications directly, and to carry out world wide, community-based communication tests.

For an affordable Mobile device supporting popular instant messengers over cheap connection would be an irresistible market attractive. Just think about how much this would revolutionize the way people communicate in their WiFi served office area.

LED

A blinking LED would be cheap and low power, good for informing the user about new SMS/Email....

An alternative to this would be for one segment of the LCD to be seperately backlit. There are many LEDs in the backlight, all normally on. This has the advantage that you can display reasonable amounts of information on the bit of the screen that's illuminated.

The disadvantage is the field of view is smaller, and it's dimmer than a bare LCD, as the LCD absorbs some light.

This also requires the CPU and LCD to be somewhat active, to keep it refreshed.

Note: the LED and button ideas could be combined: illuminated buttons

A yellow LED for GSM/GPRS Tx burst, a blue one for Bluetooth/WiFi Tx burst, a green one for non-urgent notifications (sleep state, missed call etc.) and a red one for urgent notifications (battery almost drained out, new SMS etc.). All of this could be done in one, multicoloured (RGB) LED, similar to the nice one on the Yaesu VX-7R.

D-Pad and Buttons

Adding a D-pad (to the bottom of the phone) and 2 to 4 buttons (to the top) would provide some tactile input controls, in addition to the touchscreen. They could be used as shortcut keys in the menu, or playback control when playing media. When the phone is held sideways, they can be used as games controls. (With touchscreen alone, gameplay options are limited)

Game buttons would be extremely great especially on both sides of the screen. The larger the buttons, the better. 2x 4 buttons in up-down-left-right configuration + some extra buttons separately a bit lower on the device would be extremely great for emulation games.

Accelerometer

This enables the phone to sense where 'down' is - to enable various options.

Change playlists when I'm jogging vs walking. (there ia an mp3 player on the market that does this).

Can't the GPS information be used for that purpose? It should be possible to derive the phone's velocity from the change in coordinates over time, so such a playlist profile switcher should be a possibility even now already. Abraxa 00:09, 18 February 2007 (CET)

Yeah in my opinion that is a very cool idea. But for that case the device should be much lighter. I wouldn't go jogging with a device with this size.--denis_std 01:01, 18 February 2007 (CET)

Shake mitigation when using the camera (wish list item #1). How many of us end up with blurry pictures because we can't hold the phone steady?

An accelerometer is not a gyroscope. You can't tell orientation generally from acceleration, only which way 'down' is, which does not help for side-side motion, as the phone can spin around the direction of gravity without any acceleration. Up and down tilting is slightly easier, but it's very hard to determine between shaking of the phone in an up and down axis, and tilting the phone in an up and down axis.

There are a number of three-axis accelerometer chips on the market. These will be capable of determining most movements. I.e. accelerations in all directions and rotation (change in direction of gravity). Some related research has already been carried out (when three-axis accelerometers were not commonly available, instead using 2 two-axis devices) which shows these kind of movements can be tracked [1]. Mwelchuk 11:02, 26 February 2007 (CET)

3 axis accelerometer does _not_ give orientation information. It gives direction in which the current acceleration is. There are 3 variables to orientation - roll, pitch, yaw, and only two independent outputs from the accelerometer (tilt in two axes at 90 degrees). To get these, you have to assume no acceleration, which is not the case in a shaking hand. Two 2-axis accelerometers, one on either side of the device, do give this information, or at least enough to use the device as a steering wheel. If you place them like this and tilt the device the 2 accelerometers will give opposite readings, if you move the device (translation) they will give the same readings. Simple, no ?

The tilt information you get cannot be separated from shaking the phone.

Yes it can, just dampen with a filter

Consider you are sitting down in a chair. You know which way down is. You cannot, without further information tell if you are spinning round. Down does not move.

Obviously it does move : action-reaction : say down is a vector G. If you spin direction D is the tangent to the spinning circle. This tangent will be added to G, and this is the value the accelerometer returns. So you will measure G+D. Knowing this you can easily determine D, as you always measure G somewhere in the accelerometer.

IBM's thinkpad laptops have a demonstration program that actually does this, so obviously it is possible.
--Speedevil 14:10, 26 February 2007 (CET)

SIR/FIR transceiver (Serial Infrared)

An infrared tranceiver is cheap, small, and useful for sync with many laptops and mobile phones. A learning infrared remote is another application.

Tt could be used to detect when to turn off the display (if the low power IR signal is reflected) and activate the key lock.

FIR would be a nice option, as it's some 40 times faster than SIR.

Standard 3.5mm jack

I think everyone interested (and knowledgeable) enough to buy a Neo can make a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female adaptor cable in under 1/2h and under 10EUR :-)

Certainly - now make it light, small, pretty, durable, tangle-free.
I want a 3.5mm jack. The only problem is - are headsets widely available in the same format as 2.5mm. --Speedevil 14:28, 16 February 2007 (CET)

I believe this would be a great idea, if put into practice. It would solve the extensibility need, usually associated with Open Source projects. It would allow for lots of other devices and for functionality to be developed and put into use without making it a burden for FIC.

Thumb keyboard or keyboard attachment accessory

Could be slide out or clamshell (hinge on long side) design with an external OLED. The keyboard should be protected when not in use.

Could be a clip on keyboard that attaches to the serial port or communicates by bluetooth (not preferred for permanent keyboard users).

cheap clippable miniusb keyboard

EDGE support

EDGE support would allow better transfer rates than non-EDGE 2G, which is limited around 5 kB/s, thus enabling a real internet connectivity for the use of (mostly geographical-based) web services.

HSDPA support

HSDPA is currently the most popular 3G Mobile Telephony Network Protocol in Southeast Asia. It runs at a theoretical 384kbps uplink / 1.6mbps downlink.

A thought: is HSDPA worth doing while we're also going for Wifi / WiMax / WiBro? And another: is doing Wifi / Wimax / WiBro worth it considering low deployment in Asia? How 'bout doing both Wifi and 3G, is it worth it or not?

Ability to insert more than one Sim-Card and (if possible) connect to more than one network at the same time

This could be achieved via a specialist dual sim card kit (currently on market)- where two sims are trimmed and combined on one card, software support for dual sims would need providing...

What about twin-SIMs (SIMs with 2 phone lines registered on them)? Conventional GSM phones have an option to switch between the two, older ones use # (long press before dialling) to do that. I'm guessing Calypso should support it, we just need to provide an interface for it :-) --@Dexter 11:34, 19 February 2007 (CET)

USB

Simply because pocket space is also a scarce resource. Being able to plug in for a moment a camera, flash reader, or ... is a valuable thing. Also, many powered hubs will not recognise a totally unpowered host.

OTG (is this maybe supported already ?)

Bootable USB device emulation: the possibility to boot any computer on a bootable flagged partition of the transflash

UMTS support

Speakerphone

The Neo1973 already supports that in hardware (routing GSM audio to the loudspeakers). Could someone delete this wishlist item then? --@Dexter 13:14, 28 February 2007 (CET)

Unfortunately, speakerphone is more than simply connecting the speakers to GSM audio, it's also echo cancellation, and eliminating the feedback that will otherwise happen between the speakers and the mic.

Special covers

A standard slip-on or clip-on template (possibly with buttons) to make the touch-screen blind accessible

Small metal frame for protection (like Siemens M65, only with more style)

Video acceleration

Hardware acceleration for video playback.

3D acceleration

HMD

EPD

Or electronic paper display, EPD is used in many new devices such as the new Motorola motofone, sonys new e-reader and Irex's iliad. The technology provides thin, flexible, power saving screens using new eink technology. This technology could cut the weight of the phone and its power usage. For more info see: eink's website.

FM/Digital Radio(DAB) Reciever

Thermometer

An electronic thermometer might become handy for some users.

There are very small I2C devices available, that could easily integrate to the existing bus. For example this one from ti.

I2C breakout

I2C is an internal bus in the phone. This is a simple bus, with only 2-3 wires, hence ideal for making accessible to those making add-ons, as it is low powered, and can be daisy-chained. It would be a great candidate to bring out into the Expansion Back.

Finger print sensor

Fingerprint sensor gives easy and fast access to the phone, could lock the touchscreen etc. An example of this device can be found at Sony UX17.

As these are typically implemented with a small camera (256*4) focussed on the finger, with appropriate hardware and software, you can also use them as an optical mouse in reverse, detecting movement of the finger over the sensor.

Trackball

A trackball would provide an efficient mouse-like interface in a very compact package. As exemplified in the newer Blackberry® models.